Copper Country Explorer Field Guide No.1: The Village of Calumet

By Mike Forgrave

Here at Copper Country Explorer we tell the legend of a forsaken empire that once reigned over the scenic shores of the Keweenaw Peninsula, an empire ruled by copper. In no other place in the world did it occur in such purity and abundance. Its discovery led to one of the great colonizations of the modern age, transforming the remote and rugged wilderness of the Keweenaw into an industrial metropolis of over 100,000 people. It was not to last however. After over a century of rule, the empire would draw its last breaths. The mines closed, the people left, and the industrial metropolis returned to the wilderness from which it had come. In its place would be only ruins, the crumbling remnants of a lost civilization we know today as the Copper Country. It is within the shadows of the lost empire that this field guide wanders, exploring the ruins and remnants of a land lost in time. While the empire may have fallen, its legacy endures - crumbling ruins buried in the rugged wilderness, soaring stacks rising high above sprawling forest, and grand sandstone buildings lining quaint village streets. It is this field guide's mission to document these glimpses into history, and share the stories they tell. Featured in this volume...Originally known as Red Jacket, the town of Calumet first formed to the north of the great C&H mine around 1864. As the mine prospered, the town of Red Jacket expanded in response. By 1900 the small town had managed to grow to nearly 5,000 residents, which when combined with the surrounding suburbs created a sprawling metropolis of nearly 30,000 people. Along the village's brick-paved streets were all the trappings of a modern metropolis: multi-floor department stores featuring the latest in European fashion, an opulent 1200 seat opera house boasting nationally touring stage plays and acts, and an elegantly manicured city park designed by one of the country's most renowned landscape architects.However, by the 1960s the great Copper Empire had fallen from greatness, the great C&H was no more, and the village's fortunes were no more . Within a decade the village's population shrunk to near obscurity and most of its businesses shut their doors. A city built for tens of thousands of people was now home to just under a thousand. As a result hundreds of homes were left vacant and dark, dozens of massive commercial blocks along the village's wide streets were abandoned , and the bells in the village's soaring churches were forever silenced.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1500921084
• ISBN13: 9781500921088
• Release Date: January 2015
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 104 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.3" x 5.5"